In Today'sien Weekly Connection s3

------THE IEN WEEKLY CONNECTION ------March 23, 2009

In Today's IEN Weekly Connection:

- ECONOMIC RECOVERY FORUM -TUESDAY, MARCH 24TH AT NAVY PIER - EMERGING 200 - SMART ENERGY DESIGN ASSISTANCE CENTER - FROM FARM TO FORK - A FOOD FORUM ON APRIL 13TH IN CHICAGO - SBA IMPLEMENTS RECOVERY ACT PROVISIONS TO HELP SMALL FIRMS - BUSINESS.GOV COMMUNITY INITIATIVE - ILLINOIS SBDC AND THE IRS PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM - IEN PROGRAM SUCCESS OF THE WEEK - BIT BROKERS INTERNATIONAL - GETTING THE MOST OUT OF WEBCATS - NETWORK FAVORITE REPORTS - WEBSITE OF THE WEEK - WWW.CONSTANTCONTACT.COM - RESOURCE OF THE WEEK - GUIDE TO PAYING BUSINESS DEBTS - MOVES AND NEWS - GSU and IESBGA SPRING TRAINING MEETING

ECONOMIC RECOVERY FORUM -TUESDAY, MARCH 24TH AT NAVY PIER Join us for a full day of information and networking. Learn first-hand from the experts who know, how to access capitalfor your business; identify, complete the paperwork and navigate the federal, state and local contract opportunities being made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This event will be held at Navy Pier in Chicago. It will begin at 8am and conclude at 6pm. We want to thank the 27 volunteers from the IEN who will be helping at this event. For event information, please visit: www.IL-Economic-Recovery.us For more information, please call: (312) 353-4599; (312) 353-4385 or (312) 353-4519

EMERGING 200 As you may know, the SBA piloted a new initiative, Emerging 200. For 2009, 15 existing inner city businesses within the City of Chicago, with high growth potential will be able to participate in the E 200 class. The core of the E 200 initiative is 90+ hours of advanced business training. SBA Illinois District Office will provide additional business development assistance to the E 200 class participants.

The profile of firms that will best benefit from the E 200 initiative are those that:

 have been actively operating at least 3 years  have minimum annual revenue of $400,000  headquartered in the inner city SBA is interested in having the following types of businesses in the pool of possible E 200 Chicago participant firms:  Construction  Film, video and interactive media services  Health services, support and supply  Hospitality, tourism, entertainment  Light manufacturing  Logistics, transportation and distribution  Professional services  Retail  Sustainable green industries – alternative energy and recycling  Telecommunications

To indicate interest, prospective participant firms may go to the SBA Illinois District Office website www.sba.gov/il and complete the expression of interest form. Please share this information with those firms that meet the profile description and may have an interest in participating.

SMART ENERGY DESIGN ASSISTANCE CENTER The Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) is pleased to announce that this month's issue of SEDAC's monthly newsletter is now available for download at www.sedac.org.

FROM FARM TO FORK - A FOOD FORUM ON APRIL 13TH IN CHICAGO The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth and the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) cordially invite you to take part in a new initiative all about food. They are pleased to present From Farm to Fork: Innovations in the Chicago Food Industry. As part of Chicago Booth’s Hamer Exploring Entrepreneurship Conference Series, this forum will be the first of its kind to showcase the region’s leadership in the global food industry and discuss the trends and opportunities for growth in all parts of the value chain. The day will include various panel sessions, high-level speakers, and participation from entrepreneurs, industry experts and consultants, investors, chefs, and representatives from economic development and government agencies. The forum will be held at the Gleacher Center located at 450 North City Front Plaza Drive in Chicago. Hours of the program are 8:00am to 5:00pm. For more information about this forum and to register, please visit this website which is: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=177807 SBA IMPLEMENTS RECOVERY ACT PROVISIONS TO HELP SMALL FIRMS SBA is implementing two key provisions laid out in the Recovery Act. They are temporarily eliminating certain loan fees and raising guarantees on some 7(a) loans up to 90 percent. With these critical steps by SBA, and the Treasury Department’s commitment of up to $15 billion aimed at getting lending markets flowing again, they want small business owners across this country to know how they are going to put much-needed capital in their hands.

The SBA will: • Temporarily raise guarantees to up to 90 percent on SBA’s 7(a) loan program, through calendar year 2009, or until the funds are exhausted. This increase in guarantee levels will help provide banks with the greater confidence they need to extend credit during the current recession, will mean more capital available to small business owners around the country.

• Temporarily eliminate fees for borrowers on SBA 7(a) loans and for both borrowers and lenders on 504 Certified Development Company loans, through calendar year 2009, or until the funds are exhausted. This will mean more capital available to small businesses at a lower cost. The fee elimination is retroactive to February 17, the day the Recovery Act was signed. SBA is developing a mechanism for refunding fees paid on loans since then.

Additionally, the President has announced that the Treasury Department will commit up to $15 billion to help unlock the frozen credit markets by purchasing small business loan securities currently frozen on the secondary market. By purchasing these securities, it will unlock these secondary markets, and in turn, free up more capital to jumpstart lending for small business owners. The SBA has worked closely with the Treasury Department to address the need to unlock these secondary markets for SBA loans. For more information on the SBA and Treasury initiatives announced by the President, visit the SBA Web site at www.sba.gov BUSINESS.GOV COMMUNITY INITIATIVE SBA’s Business Gateway Program announced today the launch of a new Web initiative – http://Community.Business.gov – the first government-sponsored online community built specifically for small businesses. The objective of the Business.gov Community supports the White House’s mission to create a transparent and connected democracy, and aims to provide small business owners, bloggers, and the government with a place to discuss and share information about starting and running a successful business.

An extension of Business.gov, the Business.gov Community combines discussion forums, blogs, an idea exchange, and more, and offers advanced tools for navigating the labyrinth of government resources, policies, laws, and opportunities that impact the small business owner. In addition to providing a “home” where users can share expertise and unique experiences, the site also provides a pioneering opportunity for small businesses to provide direct input into Business.gov and voice the ways government and the online community can better serve them.

Over the next few months, the Business.gov Community will expand to include additional features and resources that address specific user interests and provide access to the wider pool of government and Business.gov partner resources available to the small business owner.

ILLINOIS SBDC AND THE IRS PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM To help your small business and self-employed customers learn about and meet their federal tax responsibilities, the IRS is offering a number of educational products available for you to present Small Business Tax Workshops. These products will support your efforts to help small business owners start and keep their businesses on the right path. They have developed a set of PowerPoint presentations and a companion Instructor Guide to use in conjunction with the Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop DVD.

The PowerPoint presentations are each designed for delivery in approximately thirty minutes or less. They generally follow the lessons and information on the Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop DVD, which you can use to augment your presentation and give as a handout to participants. The IRS has also secured a list of volunteer practitioners that are available to teach these workshops.

The IRS would like to hold Small Business Tax Workshops at the various SBDCs and also establish Tax Centers on each SBDC's website. Gwenella Blackshire, IRS Stakeholder Liaison will be in contact with you directly to discuss establishing these workshops and using the volunteer instructors. Gwenella will also discuss establishing a Tax Center on your SBDC website. If you have any questions, please contact: Mark Enstrom at: [email protected] or Gwen Blackshire at: 630-493-5046 office; 913-375-4368 cell; 630-493-5370 fax or by email at: [email protected] IEN PROGRAM SUCCESS OF THE WEEK - BIT BROKERS INTERNATIONAL Working hard to solve problems as partners is what makes Bit Brokers International, a client of the Illinois SBDC ITC at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, this week's IEN Program Success of the Week. Their story is best told, in an email that was sent to the SBDC ITC by this client last month.

On February 18, 2009 I contacted Silvia Torres for help. Our company had sold a large order ($117K) of drill bits to a business in Miami which had in turn sold them to a municipality in Nicaragua. We had negotiated with its representative since September 2008 and we were finally ready to ship to him. At the last minute, our contact requested some specific documentation, including a letter that stated that his company was our distributor in Nicaragua. The letter should be signed by an officer of our company, with his signature notarized and the Notary Public's signature certified by the State of Illinois and then sent to the Consulate of Nicaragua in Washington, DC for legalization.

The Consulate has abbreviated hours of operation and was nearly impossible to reach by phone when we had a question about the documents and the Illinois Secretary of State certification. This was complicated by the fact that the Consulate's phone system was in Spanish beyond the greeting. Bit Brokers contacted Silvia Torres and asked if she could assist us with this. She began working on it immediately and the problem was quickly solved. Her unique set of skills; knowledge of our business, of international trade, experience working with Consulates and speaking Spanish was very valuable to us.

Now, we can get paid and Nicaragua can get their tools and begin drilling water wells. The Illinois SBDC International Trade Center is a great resource for our business.

Signed: Angie Young, Operations Manager, Bit Brokers International Ltd, Logan, Illinois 62856 USA

Congratulations to Bit Brokers International on their success and to the Illinois SBDC ITC at SIU - Edwardsville for the assistance provided to this client.

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF WEBCATS - NETWORK FAVORITE REPORTS As a user, you can create your own personal lists of favorite reports. Similarly, system administrators can create lists of favorite reports that apply to the WebCATS community as a whole. These lists are available to and, generally speaking, useful to, all WebCATS users within your program. An administrator can create a list of favorite network reports for each record type as well as for the activity history lists that display for an open client or counselor record. For example, one list would consist of all favorite client reports while another list consists of all favorite counseling session reports. The list of network favorites reports is configured on the "Network Favorites" tab within the Reports window. Note that the option to configure this tab is only available to system administrators, although access to the reports on this tab is available to everyone. To create a list of network favorite reports, perform the following steps: 1. Within the Reports window select the "Network Favorites" tab. Highlight "Edit Network Favorites", and click Generate Report.

2. Available reports will appear in the left hand column. Select the reports that you wish to add and use the arrow buttons to move them into the right hand column. Click Update. WEBSITE OF THE WEEK - WWW.CONSTANTCONTACT.COM Many of you who attended the IESBGA meeting last week in Decatur had the opportunity to participate in the Constant Contact breakout session on Friday morning. Mr. Steve Robinson, Regional Development Director of Illinois and Wisconsin for Constant Contact presented a very informative session on email marketing and building client relationships. Even if you were not able to attend this training, we invite you to visit their website. In the coming weeks, we will be providing the slides from Steve's presentation and information about how Centers can sign-up for a free Constant Contact Account. We also want to extend a Special Thank You to Constant Contact, the Corporate Sponsor of the IESBGA Meeting in Decatur. Please visit their website to learn how this valuable tool can help you, build client relationships at: www.constantcontact.com

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK - GUIDE TO PAYING BUSINESS DEBTS Over the last year, a significant number of small businesses have been experiencing real financial stress. Corporate Turnaround has co-developed with the ASBDC, a guide called: “How to Pay Business Debts you Can’t Afford”, which has been in great demand. To meet this need and expand upon the Guide, we’ve produced an accompanying 14 minute video tutorial. Here’s the link to the video tutorial: Click Here or, paste this address into your browser: http://www.screencast.com/users/CorporateTurnaround/folders/Default/media/98f736dc-10de-4733-957c- b50e565973b1

In the event you are not familiar with our Guide, it teaches a methodical, proven way for smaller businesses to develop a plan to pay their creditors. It shares proprietary information including calculations, templates for letters, a business history profile and offers to settle within an affordable budget. Corporate Turnaround has received a warm response from all levels of the ASBDC, including the 2008 Chicago Conference where they had 148 attendees in their standing room only session. For printed copies and/or a PDF of the Guide see: www.sbdc.dontdeclare.com You are more than welcome to post this information on your site.

MOVES AND NEWS - GSU and IESBGA Spring Training Congratulations to the Illinois SBDC at Governors State University (GSU) for their role as part of the CenterPoint for Entrepreneurs at GSU which has just won an Award for Business Excellence. They will be honored as a recipient of The Business Ledger’s 2009 Annual Award for Business Excellence for their significant contribution to the growth of the region’s business community. The CenterPoint for Entrepreneurs has been part of the Chicago Southland’s economic landscape for 25 years. Co- funded by Governors State University and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the center has produced impressive results. Since 2000 alone, CenterPoint has helped create and retain over 5,000 jobs and assisted clients in obtaining $117 million in loan dollars.

In addition to an Illinois Small Business Development Center, the CenterPoint for Entrepreneurs is host to a newly appointed Illinois Procurement Technical Assistance Center, an SBA 504 Certified Development Corporation, the Southland Community Development Corporation, a University sponsored Global Trade Center and a remote SCORE Chicago location.

SUCCESSFUL IESBGA SPRING TRAINING MEETING Special thanks to all of the members of the IEN that participated in the very successful Spring Training Conference held by the Illinois Entrepreneurship and Small Business Growth Association (IESBGA) on March 19th and 20th at Millikin University in Decatur. We also want to express our sincere gratitude President Douglas Zemke and Millikin University for their tremendous hospitality and to everyone involved in the organization, planning and smooth running of this very informative and educational meeting. Thank you.

“Providing Guidance for Business Growth" ======The IEN WEEKLY CONNECTION is distributed by the Illinois SBDC each Monday to the members of the DCEO Illinois Entrepreneurship Network to provide these service delivery partners with regular updates on small business issues, opportunities and resources. Please forward this update to any other interested resource providers and key stakeholders. www.ilsbdc.biz ======“Serving Illinois Small Business for 25 Years”